ShijiazhuangWade-Giles romanization Shih-chia-chuangPinyin Shijiazhuangcity in west-central Hopeh city and capital of Hebei sheng (province), northeastern China. It is the administrative capital of Hopeh province. It stands situated south of the Hutuo River in the west-central part of the province, on the edge of the North China Plain and at the foot of the T’ai-hang Taihang Mountains, which lie to the west. The city stands south of the Hu-t’o River.

In pre-Han times (i.e., before 206 BC) it was the site of the city of Shih-i in the state of Chao, and, from Han (206 BC–AD 220) to Sui (581–618) times, it was the site of a county town with the same name. With the reorganization of local government in the early period of the T’ang dynasty (618–907), the county was abolished. Shih-chia-chuang then became little more than a local market town, subordinated to the flourishing city of Chen-ting (modern Cheng-ting) a few miles to the north.

The growth of Shih-chia-chuang is relatively young; it was formally established in 1939 and was renamed Shijiazhuang in 1947. It became the provincial capital in 1968.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Shijiazhuang was only a small village under Luquan county. Its growth into one of China’s major cities began in 19051906, when the Peking–WuBeijing-han Hankou (Han-k’ouWuhan) railway reached passing through the area , stimulating opened for traffic. This quickly stimulated much new trade and encouraging encouraged local farmers to grow cash crops. Two years One year later the town became the junction for the a new Shih-t’ai rail line, running from Shih-chia-chuang to T’ai-yüan in central Shansi westward from Zhengding (now administratively under Shijiazhuang) to Taiyuan in central Shanxi province. This connection immediately transformed the town from a local collecting centre and market into a communications centre hub of national importance on the main route from Peking Beijing and Tientsin Tianjin to Shansi Shanxi and—later, when the railway from T’ai-yüan Taiyuan was extended to the southwest—to Shensi Shaanxi province as well. The city also became the centre of an extensive road network.

During the pre-World War II period, Shih-chia-chuang Shijiazhuang was a large railway town as well as a commercial and collecting centre point for Shansi Shanxi and the regions farther west and for the agricultural produce of the North China Plain, particularly for grain, tobacco, and cotton. By 1935 it had far outstripped Cheng-ting Zhengding as an economic centre. At the end of World War II, the character of the city changed once again. Not only did it assume an administrative role as the preeminent city in western Hopeh Hebei, but it also developed into an industrial city. Some industry, such as match manufacturing, tobacco processing, and glassmaking, had already been established before the war.

Only after 1949, however, did the planned industrialization of the city gather momentum. Its population more than trebled in the decade 1948–58. In the 1950s the city experienced a major expansion in the textile industry, with large-scale cotton-spinning, weaving, printing, and dyeing works. In addition, there are various plants processing that process local farm produce. In the 1960s it was also the site of a new chemical industry, with plants producing fertilizer and caustic soda. Shih-chia-chuang Shijiazhuang also became an engineering base, with a tractor-accessory plant. There are important coal deposits at Ching-hsing and Huo-lu, a few miles to the west in the foothills of the T’ai-hang Mountains, which provide fuel for a thermal-generating plant supplying power to local industriesmachine making (including farm machinery and mining equipment) growing considerably. Other major plants in the city manufacture pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronic products, processed foods, and building materials.

The city’s role as a transport centre has been supplemented enhanced by the construction of an airport handling regular domestic a rail line from Shijiazhuang to Dezhou (in Shangdong province) and expressways north to Beijing, west to Taiyuan, south to Zhengzhou (Henan province), and east to the seaport at Huanghua on the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli); the city also has a large airport that handles domestic and international flights. Pop. (19902002 est.) city, 1,068,439.970,956; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 2,417,000.